No criminal charges in death of Kansas teen in police custody
A Kansas district attorney will not file criminal charges in connection with the death of Cedric Lofton, a Black teenager who died in law enforcement custody, and cited the state’s stand your ground law.
Lofton, 17, died in September, two days after being arrested and taken to a juvenile facility in Wichita, where he allegedly assaulted corrections employees and was restrained and held face down for more than 30 minutes.
The coroner ruled his death from “complications of cardiopulmonary arrest sustained after physical struggle while restrained in the prone position” and labeled it a homicide in December.
But Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett announced Tuesday that the men who held Lofton down “acted in self-defense” and “restrained Cedric per policy to protect themselves and to keep Cedric from hurting himself.”
“The (Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center) and (Juvenile Detention Facility) employees acted in self-defense under Kansas law,” Bennett said in his ruling. “They are immune from prosecution as a result of Kansas’s robust stand your ground law. This conclusion is not a reflection of this office’s approval of what happened to Cedric Lofton on September 24, 2021. This should never have happened.”
Death of Black Kansas teen in police custody ruled a homicide
Lofton’s foster father called 911 to say his son was having a mental breakdown and needed an evaluation, but the teenager refused to go voluntarily, according to the autopsy. Instead, he was arrested for battering a law enforcement officer and taken to the Sedgwick County juvenile detention facility.
There, Lofton allegedly punched an employee and staff members shackled him at the ankles, rolled him into a prone position and handcuffed him behind his back. Lofton stopped breathing and died two days later.
“The cause of death was brought about by the position in which Cedric was held as well as the ongoing struggle which lasted for over thirty minutes largely unabated,” the district attorney’s report reads.
“The long-lasting struggle while in the face-down position impeded his breathing, which caused the supply of oxygen to his heart to be compromised to the point that his heart stopped.”
An attorney for Lofton’s family said that both the autopsy and video from inside the facility, which was never released publicly, proves that the teenager was “unjustifiably killed.”
“These officials at the juvenile intake center had an unarmed 17-year-old, 135-pound African-American young man in the prone position for several minutes…and they took his breath away and ultimately killed him,” Andrew M. Stroth told the Daily News.
“Cedric Lofton should be alive today and he’s not because of the actions of these officers while in the care and custody of authorities who are supposed to be protecting the safety and welfare of citizens.”
Lofton’s family plans to “pursue all remedies in the civil courts,” Stroth told The News, including hiring an independent prosecutor.
